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If Ottawa doesn’t clean up its sewage, the Medical Officer of Health will permanently close all city beaches.
Dr. David Salisbury told the Community and Protective Services Committee yesterday that if the city continues to pollute the waters residents use to take a refreshing dip, he’ll have no choice but to protect public health and close four major beaches.
“We will end up in a situation where we can’t keep them open,” said Salisbury. “I will order them closed.”
HUMAN FECES
Salisbury said there is no immediate concern of closing any of the beaches permanently but he is looking to the future. He told city officials the city must act proactively to eliminate human feces flowing into the Ottawa and Rideau rivers or he will “have to take the appropriate action.”
City officials told the committee each of its wastewater treatment facilities is meeting provincial criteria when releasing treated human waste into the Ottawa River.
Salisbury recognizes the standards are met, but says the fact that some is being released at all is a concern.
“Environmental laws aren’t bad but not perfect,” he said.
Salisbury is also concerned with the city’s aging infrastructure that allows untreated waste to enter into local rivers.
“We can’t pretend we are not part of the ecosystem. If we do it will rise up to bite us.”
Salisbury and his colleagues were addressing an Environment Canada report that heavily criticized the amount of human feces present at the Petrie Island Beach. As reported first in the Sun last month, the Environment Canada report said the beach acts as a reservoir for E.coli and found several examples of human poo in the beach sand as well as in the water.
Orleans Coun. Bob Monette argued Petrie Island Beach is no more polluted than the Brittania, Westboro and Mooney’s Bay beaches.
Salisbury reminded the committee where the east-end beach lies.
“Our output does flow into the river and flows downstream,” said Salisbury. “Petrie Island is downstream from all of us and will receive everything we put into it.”
E. COLI CLOSURES
Kitchissippi Coun. Christine Leadman is equally concerned about the water quality at Westboro beach in her ward. Since 1998, Westboro beach has been closed to swimmers 225 times because of extremely high levels of E. coli in the water. Britannia was closed for 157 days and Mooney’s Bay for 38 days. Petrie Island, which has only been open to swimmers since 2005, has been closed 66 times to swimmers.
“We sit around and talk about Petrie but here we have a highly used beach in the city’s core,” said Leadman. “There are a lot of kids in the area and it doesn’t get the attention it needs.”
Ottawa Sun